The pandemic came with its fair share of challenges and impacted all of our lives in various ways, but some of these impacts came with ‘a silver lining.’ In subtle ways, the pandemic reminded us that we are surrounded by individuals all over the world who are essentially the same as us. We look the same, face the same problems and require the same resources to live and flourish. However, being under isolation may also have the complete opposite effects for some of us. Some of us may feel further differentiated from others due to our natural biases and homogenous social circles. This differentiation among people could result in an empathy deficit (the inability to feel, understand and resonate with another's feelings) and further divide people across the world.
You, must be wondering why we are talking about this and thinking, what exactly is empathy and why is it important? In the simplest of definitions, empathy can be described as the experience of understanding others’ feelings and emotions. After decades of research in the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience, we now know that empathy is not only essential for our healthy development but also vital for our emotional well-being. Furthermore, even animals demonstrate the capacity for empathetic behaviours. In a 2011 study on rats, the researchers found that when one rat was soaked in water, his buddy rat was quick to learn how to operate a lever to save his friend. Even when being rewarded for not saving the soaking rat, all rats still chose to save their fellow rats.
RATS ALSO END UP EMPATHISISING WITH EACHOTHER!!
If, they can do it so can we! When we went on to understand the concept more. We thought of the childhood games we played.
We found that one of the main factors responsible for the development of empathy is engaging in ‘play’.
When children play, they often demonstrate the ability of perspective-taking, by pretending to be a mother or an aeroplane pilot for example. By imagining these different roles, children are able to better understand how their actions impact others in different situations. This process of imagination exposes them to new ideas and allows them to experience the world through the perspective of others. Engaging in ‘play’ is considered essential for the development of empathy because it teaches children how to cooperate with each other and the importance of following rules.
Imagination plays an important role in building empathy. Thus, empathy can be developed even without engaging in ‘play’, just through imagination. There is a common misconception that either one is empathetic or not, and therefore it cannot be developed. In reality, empathy is a trait that can be learned and nurtured even as adults so it is never too late to work on this quality. To be empathetic is an essential part of what makes us human and is vital for building a healthy and cooperative future. Keeping this in mind, let’s explore one of the ways through which we can nurture our ability to be empathetic and compassionate towards others and ourselves.
Try this activity: Loving kindness meditation
One of the key ways to develop empathy is to practice loving kindness meditation which involves focusing on attributes such as kindness, compassion and love towards oneself and the outside world.
You can practice such a meditation yourself by sitting in a comfortable position and contemplating these attributes with different levels of focus.
· The first level involves focusing these attributes on yourself, practicing loving, kindness and compassion towards yourself. Feeling love towards yourself and being thankful for all that you are.
· Second level involves focusing these attributes on a friend. Concentrating your feelings of love and kindness towards a friend.
· Focusing on a neutral person (a person who does not typically elicit positive or negative feelings but who is commonly encountered during a normal day)
· Focus on a difficult person (a person who is typically associated with negative feelings)
· Focus on the self, good friend, neutral person and difficult person (with attention being equally divided amoung them)
· Focus on entire universe.
· Focus on entire universe.
Activities such as play enhance this imagination and increase our empathy stay tuned to our Instagram page for the same!
We hope this aided you towards taking the 1st step towards in understanding empathy for self!
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References
1. Play and empathy - https://www.londonchildrensmuseum.ca/news/play-and-empathy
2. Harrison Wein, Ph.D. Rats Show Empathy, Too - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/rats-show-empathy-too
3. Claire Cain Miller, How to Be More Empathetic - https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-be-more-empathetic
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